How A Race To the South Pole Will Help Your Spanish Training

In 1911, Roald Amundsen (a Norwegian explorer) and his team set off in a race to the South Pole against a British team led by Robert Falcon Scott.

If you know the story already, you will know that it ends in ultimate success for one team and ultimate failure for the other.

The story goes, the two teams set out within days of each other. Amundsen’s team quickly pulled out to a 30-day lead on the 1400-mile journey.

What does this have to do with Spanish? Just bare with me, I’m getting there.

Amundsen’s team successfully arrived at the South Pole on 14^th December 1911, three months later they returned safely to Hobart, Australia to announce their triumph to the world.

Scott’s team, on the hand, did successfully make it to the South Pole on 17^th January 1912 (over month later) but every member of the team including Scott perished on the return journey.

There are many reasons for Amundsen’s success and Scott’s failure. Amundsen conducted far more extensive research and planning including living with the Eskimos, using dog sleds, carrying far more supplies than they needed for emergencies and even charting a course that was 60 miles less than his opposition.

But the one key idea that I’m going to discuss is an idea that is raised in the book Jim Collins – Great by Choice.

The idea that Amundsen embraced was a 20-mile march.

Amundsen’s approach was simple; he wanted to maintain relentless consistency. He would hold his team back during good weather careful to stay away from exhaustion yet push his team ahead during poorer conditions.

Amundsen covered the 1400-mile journey by maintaining a disciplined 15 – 20 miles a day regardless of weather conditions and his team’s energy levels.

Scott’s team in contrast pushed up to 40 miles in good weather conditions yet camped out for up to 6 or 7 days without progress as poor weather conditions moved through.

How To Approach Your Spanish Training 

How does this apply to learning Spanish?

Well, let me ask you this question; is your approach to your Spanish training like that of Amundsen or that of Scott?

Do you tend to learn in big bursts and then burn out, get bored and take extended breaks or do you maintain a consistent daily pace rail, hail or shine.

If you think back to the conditions in Antarctica, both teams could theoretically face two perfect days of good weather and five poor days. Amundsen’s team would cover 20-miles a day and in the week a total distance of 140-miles. Scott’s team, in contrast, could cover 40-miles on the first day, maybe 30-miles due to exhaustion on the second and then five days waiting out the storm resulting in only 70-miles covered for the week. You can now see how Amundsen’s team quickly pulled out to the 30-day lead.

Now imagine two Spanish students trying to improve their vocabulary: one learns 10-words a day every single day, the other has a big burst of 30-words on one day then is busy the next day but decides to more study on the weekend and finds time for another 20-words.

You can see here how after a just few weeks the first Spanish will start to pull far ahead of the second.

There is no doubt that learning a language can be a long journey. There is a lot to know and you won’t ever be able to learn everything in a weekend of practice here and there.

Knowing that you have long journey to cover, like Amundsen, will you cover that journey at a relentlessly consistent pace or will you take the approach of Scott and risk failure?

Set Your Own 20-Mile March

See if you can make the decision to start your own 20-mile march. At the start it may not feel like you are covering much ground but even after two weeks of a consistent pace you will notice an increase in your skill level.

Once you have built momentum and have seen the increase in your skills the 20-mile daily march will become easier.

Overtime you may need to adjust your pace but think of it an anchor and when things get busy and the stormy weather comes you know you can do your 10 minutes of marching because you have saved your additional energy from the good days. You also know that in the long run you will be able to cover far more ground and get to your goals faster.

How can you implement your own 20-mile march?